DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JUNE 15, 1879,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up your bed and
walk." John 5:11.
(On behalf of the Mansion House Fund for the Hospitals of London).
JUST a few observations upon the narrative itself. It was a feast day
and Jesus Christ came up to Jerusalem to find opportunities for doing
good among the crowds of His countrymen. I see all the city glad; I
hear the voice of rejoicing in every house as they hold high festival
and eat the fat and drink the sweet. But where does Jesus keep the
feast? How does He spend His holiday? He walks among the poor, whom He
loves so well. Behold Him in the hospital! There was one notable
Bethesda or house of mercy in Jerusalem–it was a poor provision for
the city's abounding sickness, but such as it was, it was greatly
prized. There was a pool which every now and then was stirred by an
angel's wing and worked an occasional cure. Around it charitable
persons had built five porches and there, on the cold stone steps, a
number of blind and crippled and withered folk were lying, each one
upon his own wretched pallet, waiting for the moving of the waters.
There were the weary children of pain, fainting, while others were
feasting. They were racked with pain amid general rejoicing. They were
sighing amid universal singing! Our Lord was at home amid this mercy,
for here was room for His tender heart and powerful hands. He feasted
His soul by doing good. Let us learn this lesson, dear Friends, that in
the times of our brightest joys we should remember the sorrowful and
find a still higher joy in doing them good. It well becomes us in
proportion as a day is gladsome to ourselves, to make it so to the sick
and poor around us. Let us keep the feast by sending portions to those
for whom nothing is prepared, for, otherwise, the famishing may bring a
curse upon our feasting.
When we are prospered in business, let us set aside a portion for the
poor. When we are full of health and strength, let us remember those to
whom these privileges are denied and aid those who minister to them.
Blessed shall they be who, like the Lord Jesus, visit the sick and care
for them. Coming into the hospital, our Lord noticed a certain man
whose case was a very sad one. There were many painful cases there, but
He singled out this man and it would seem that the reason for His
choice was that the poor creature was in the worst plight of all. If
misery has a claim on pity, then the greater the sufferer the more is
mercy attracted towards him. This poor victim of rheumatism or
paralysis had been bound 38 years by his infirmity!
Let us hope there was no worse case on all Bethesda's porches!
Thirty-eight years is more than half the appointed period of human
life! One year of pain or paralysis has a weary length of torture about
it, but think of thirty-eight! We may well pity the man who endures the
pangs of rheumatism even for an hour–but how shall we sufficiently
pity him who has not been free from it for hard on 40 years? Even if
the case were not one of pain, but of paralysis, the inability to work
and the consequent poverty of so many years were, by no means, a small
evil. Our Lord, then, selects the worst case to be dealt with by His
curing hands as a type of what He often does in the kingdom of
Grace–and as a lesson of prudence to us–instructing us to give our
first aid to those who are first in point of need.
The man whom Jesus healed was by no means an attractive character. Our
Savior said to him, when he was healed, "Sin no more, lest a worse
thing come unto you," from which it is not an improbable inference that
his first infirmity had come upon him by deed of vice or course if
excess. In some way or other he had been guilty of that which brought
upon his body the suffering which he was enduring. Now, it is
considered generally to be a point beyond all dispute that we should
help the worthy but should refuse the worthless–that when a man brings
a calamity upon himself by wrong doing–we are justified in letting him
suffer that he may reap what he has sown.
This cold Pharisaic idea is very congenial to minds which are bent upon
saving their coins! It springs up in many hearts, or rather in places
where hearts ought to be, and it is generally regarded as if it were a
rule of prudence which it would be sinful to dispute–an infallible and
universal axiom. Now, I venture to say that our Savior never taught us
to confine our alms to the deserving! He would never have bestowed the
grand alms of Grace on any one of us if He had carried out that rule!
And if you and I had received no more at the hands of God than we
deserved, we should not have been in this house of prayer! We cannot
afford to cramp our charity into a sort of petty justice and sour our
almsgiving into a miniature law court. When a man is suffering let us
pity him, however the suffering has come.
When a man had been in misery so long as 38 years, it was time that his
infirmity should be more considered than his iniquity and that his
present sorrow should be thought upon more than his former folly. So
Jesus thought and, therefore, He came to the sinner, not with reproach,
but with restoration! He saw his disease rather than his depravity and
gave him pity instead of punishment. Our God is kind to the unthankful
and to the evil–be you, therefore, merciful as your Father, also, is
merciful. Remember how our Lord said, "Pray for them that despitefully
use you, that you may be the children of your Father which is in
Heaven; for He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and
sends rain on the just and on the unjust."
Let us imitate Him in this and wherever there is pain and sorrow let it
be our joy to relieve it. In addition to the supposition that this man
had, at some time, been grossly guilty, it seems pretty clear from the
text that he was a poor, shiftless, discouraged, inanimate, stupid sort
of person. He had never managed to get into the pool, though others had
done so who were as infirm as himself. He had never been able to win a
friend or secure a helper, though from the extreme length of his
infirmity one would have thought that at some period or another he
might have found a man to place him in the pool when the angel gave it
the mystic stir.
The Savior's asking him, "Do you want to be made whole?" leads us to
think that he had fallen into such a listless, despairing, heart-sick
condition that though he was daily at the edge of the pool as a matter
of habit, he had not only ceased to hope, but had almost ceased to
wish! Our Lord touched the chord which was most likely to respond,
namely, his will and desire to be made whole–but the response was a
very feeble one. His answer shows what a poor creature he was, for
there is not a beam of hope in it, or even of desire–it is a wail, a
hopeless dirge, a grievous complaint–"I have no man, when the water is
troubled, to put me into the pool and while I am coming, another steps
down before me."
But the utter imbecility and lack of brains of the poor creature is
most seen in the fact that like a simpleton he went to Christ's enemies
and told them that it was Jesus that had made him whole! I am sure
there was no malice in his thus informing our Lord's enemies, for if
there had been, he would have said, "It was Jesus who bade me take up
my bed," whereas he worded it thus, "It was Jesus which had made him
whole." I hardly dare, however, to hope, as some do, that there was
much gratitude about this testimony, though, doubtless, the poor soul
was grateful. I conceive that his long endurance of pain, acting upon a
weak mind, had brought him to an almost imbecile state of mind, so that
he spoke without thought.
Our Lord did not, therefore, require much of him. He did not even ask
for a distinct acknowledgement of faith from him, but only for that
small measure of it which might be implied in his answering the
question, "Do you want to be made whole?" This poor man evinced none of
the shrewdness of the man born blind who answered the Pharisees so
keenly–he was of quite another type and could do no more than state
his own case to Jesus. Thank God, even that was enough for our Lord to
work with! The Lord Jesus saves people of all sorts. He has among His
disciples men of quick and ready wit who can baffle their opponents,
but quite as often–
"He takes the fool and makes him know
The wonders of His dying love:
To bring aspiring wisdom low,
And all its pride reprove."
So here He chose this poor simpleton of a creature and worked a great
marvel upon him, to the exceeding praise of His condescending Grace.
Note well that this man's mind, though there was not much of it, was
all engrossed and filled up with the fact that he had been made whole.
Jesus, to him, was, "He that made me whole." Of the person of Jesus he
knew next to nothing, for he had only seen Him for an instant and then
he didn't know that it was Jesus. His one idea of Jesus was, "He that
made me whole."
Now, beloved Brothers and Sisters, this was natural in his case and it
will be equally natural in our own. Even when the saved ones are more
intelligent and of larger mind than this poor paralytic, they must
still chiefly think of the Son of God as their Savior–as He that made
them whole. If I do not know much about the Lord, yet I do know that He
has saved me! I was burdened with guilt and full of woes and could not
rest day nor night until He gave me peace. If I cannot tell anything
much concerning the glory of His Person, His attributes, His
relationships, His offices, or His work, yet I can say, "one thing I
know, whereas I was blinded by error, now I see! Whereas I was
paralyzed by sin, I am now able to stand upright and walk in His ways."
This poor soul knew the Lord experimentally and that is the best way of
knowing Him. Actual contact with Him yields a surer knowledge and a
truer knowledge than all the reading in the world. In the kingdom of
Christ wonderful facts transpire, such as conversion and finding peace
with God–and happy are they to whom these facts are personal
experiences! When men are turned from the error of their ways and when
their heart finds rest and peace in Christ, great deeds are done by the
Lord Jesus. And if you are acquainted with these two things, even
though you should be ignorant of a great deal else, be not afraid of
exaggerating their importance, but set your mind on them and call Jesus
by that name–"He that made me whole."
Think of Him under that aspect and you will have a very valuable and
influential idea of Him. You shall see greater things than these, but
for the present let these happy and sure facts be much upon your mind,
even as his being made whole was upon this man's mind. As for the
quibbling Pharisees, you observe that they took no notice of the
glorious fact of the man's cure–they willfully ignored what Christ had
done and they fell full swoop upon that little insignificant
circumstance that it had been done on the Sabbath! And then they spent
all their thoughts and emotions upon that side issue. They say nothing
of the man's being restored, but they rage because he carried his bed
on the Sabbath!
It is much the same with the men of the world in this day. They
habitually ignore the fact of conversion. If they do not deny it, they
look upon it as being a trifle–a matter not worth caring about. Though
they see the harlot made chaste, the thief made honest, the profane
made devout, the despairing made joyful and other moral and spiritual
changes of the utmost practical value, they forget all this and they
attack some peculiar point of doctrine, or mode of speech, or diversity
of manner and raise a storm concerning these!
Is it because the facts, themselves, if fairly looked at, would
establish what they do not care to believe? The fact that Christianity
is doing marvels in the world, such as nothing else ever did, they
persistently forget. But that fact is just what you and I must as
persistently remember! We must dwell upon what Christ has, by His Holy
Spirit, worked within our nature by renewing us in the spirit of our
minds. And we must make this work of Grace a fountain of argument which
shall establish our faith and justify our conduct. This poor man did
so! He did not know much else, but that he had been made whole he did
know–and from that fact he justified himself in what he had done.
"He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up your bed and
walk." This is the Truth of God which I want to enlarge upon this
morning–first, by saying that the work of Christ furnishes us with a
justification for our obedience to His commands–"He that made me
whole, the same said unto me"–that is our complete justification for
what we do! In the second place, the work of Jesus Christ throws upon
us an obligation to do what He bids us–if He that made me whole says
to me, "Take up your bed and walk," I am bound to do it and I ought to
feel the obligation of His goodness pressing upon me. And, in the third
place, it is not only a justification and an obligation, but the deed
of Grace becomes a constraint to obedience–He that said unto me,
"rise," and so made me whole, by that same word of power made me take
up my bed and walk!
The power which saves us also moves us to obey our Savior. Not with our
own might do we fulfill the will of our Lord, but with power which the
Healer gives us in the same hour. You see the drift, therefore, of our
discourse. May the Holy Spirit lead us into the power of this Truth,
for I am persuaded that a sense of the Lord's work within us is a great
force and should be excited and applied to the highest ends.
I. First, then, this is our JUSTIFICATION for what we do when we obey
Christ. This poor man could not defend the action of taking up his bed
and walking, for his enemies were learned in the Law and he was not.
You and I could defend it very easily, for it seems to us a very proper
thing to do under the circumstances. The weight of his bed was not much
more than that of an ordinary great coat, it was a simple rug or mat
upon which he was lying–there really was no violation of God's Law of
the Sabbath and, therefore, there was nothing to excuse.
But the Rabbis laid down rules of which I will give you but one
specimen–"It is unlawful to carry a handkerchief loose in the
pocket"–but if you pin it to your pocket or tie it round your waist as
a belt, you may carry it anywhere because it becomes a part of your
dress. To my unsophisticated mind it would have seemed that the pin
increased the ponderous burden and so there was the weight of the pin
more than was necessary! This was quite a weighty business according to
Rabbinical estimates. The most of the Rabbinical regulations with
regard to the Sabbath were absolutely ludicrous, but this poor man was
not in a position to say so or even to think so, for, like the rest of
his countrymen, he stood in awe of the scribes and doctors.
These learned Pharisees and priests were too much reverenced for this
poor creature to answer them in their own manner, so he did what you
and I must always do when we are at all puzzled–he hid behind the Lord
Jesus and pleaded, "He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take
up your bed." That was quite enough for him and he quoted it as if he
felt that it ought to be enough for those who questioned him. Truly it
ought to have been so! I may not be able to find in my own knowledge
and ability an authority equal to the authority of learned unbelievers,
but my personal experience of the power of Grace will stand me in as
good a stead as this man's cure was to him. He argued that there must
be in the man who made him whole enough authority to match the greatest
possible rabbi that ever lived!
Even his poor feeble mind could grasp that and, surely, you and I may
do the same–we can defend ourselves behind the breastwork of our
Savior's gracious work–and the consequent authority which belongs to
Him. There are certain ordinances to which a Christian man is bound to
attend, about which the world raises a storm of questions. The world
does not take notice that this man was once a drunk and has, through
Divine Grace, become sober and so has become a good father, a good
husband and a good citizen. It lets that miracle pass by unheeded–but
if he is going to be baptized, they at once object to the ordinance!
Or if he is going to join a Christian Church they straightway jeer at
him as a Presbyterian, or a Methodist–as if it matters what sort of
name they give him–so long as he is a better man than themselves, is
redeemed from sin, taught to be upright, chaste and pure in the sight
of God. The work of Grace counts for nothing with them, but just the
peculiarity of sect, or the peculiarity of religious rite is made a
world of. Blind creatures to despise the medicine which heals because
of the bottle which contains it, or the label by which it is named!
However, our answer is, "He that made us whole," the same gave us a
command and by that command we will abide. We seek no justification but
this–that He who worked a miracle of Grace upon us bade us do it.
What if I am about to be baptized as a Believer? The same that said,
"Believe," said, "Be baptized." He who gave me salvation, the same
said, "He that believes and is baptized, shall be saved." Over against
all objections we set the Divine authority of Jesus Christ! He by whose
blood we are cleansed and by whose Spirit we are renewed is Lord and
Lawgiver to us! His precept is our sufficient guarantee. If we go to
the Communion Table and revilers say, "What is the use of eating a
piece of bread and drinking a drop of wine? Why think so solemnly of so
small a matter?" We reply, He that made us whole, the same said, "Do
this in remembrance of Me." We renounce what He has not ordained, but
we cling to His statutes.
If He had commanded a rite still more trivial, or a ceremony still more
open to objection in the eyes of carnal man, we would make no further
apology than this–He who has created us anew, given us a hope of
Heaven and led us to seek after perfect holiness–He has bid us do it.
This is our final reply and although we could find other
justifications, they would be superfluous. This stands for our
defense–the Savior commands it! The same apology applies to all the
doctrines of the Gospel. I say again, ungodly men will not admit, or if
they admit it they ignore it, that the Gospel works a marvelous change
in men's hearts. If they need proof, we can find them instances by the
hundreds and by the thousands of the reclaiming, elevating and
purifying power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
The Gospel is daily working spiritual miracles, but this they
forget–and they go on to find fault with its peculiar doctrines.
Justification by faith they frequently quarrel with. "Well now," they
say, "that is a shocking doctrine! If you teach men that they are to be
saved by faith, alone, and not by their works, of course they will lead
loose lives! If you continually declare that salvation is of Grace,
alone, and not of merit, the inevitable result will be that men will
sin that Grace may abound." We find a complete answer to this calumny
in the fact that Believers in justification by faith and in the
Doctrines of Grace are among the best and purest of men–and in fact
these Truths work holiness!
But we do not care to argue thus. We prefer to remind our adversaries
that He who has caused us to be regenerate men, Himself taught us that
whoever believes in Him shall be saved and expressly declared that he
that believes in Him has everlasting life. By the mouth of His servant,
Paul, He has said that by Grace are men saved through faith and that
not of themselves, it is the gift of God! He has also told us that by
the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified and He has bid us
declare that "the just shall live by faith." He who is daily, by His
Gospel, turning men from sin to holiness has given this for the sum
total of the Gospel we are to preach–"Look unto Me and be you saved,
all the ends of the earth."
If this Gospel does not make men better and change their evil natures,
you may question it if you like, and we do not wonder that you
should–but while it continues its purifying work we shall not blush or
stammer when we declare the doctrines which are its essence and life!
Our regeneration proves to us our Lord's authority and upon that we are
prepared to base our creed. To us the best of evidence is His work
within us and in that evidence we place implicit faith. The same
applies to all the precepts which the Christian is called upon to obey.
For instance, if he is true to his colors, he keeps himself aloof from
all the sinful pleasures, practices and policies of the world in which
others take delight and, consequently, the ungodly world says that he
is peculiar, precise and self-opinionated.
This is the answer for all Christians–"He that made us whole, the same
said to us. 'You are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Come you out from among them and be you separate, touch not the unclean
thing and I will receive you.'" If you follow the precepts of the Lord
Jesus Christ you may meet all charges of peculiarity by urging the
supremacy of the Savior whose power has made you a new creature! Where
His Word is, there is a power to which we bow at once! It is not ours
to question our Savior, but to obey Him! We are cleansed by His blood!
We are redeemed by His death! We live by His life and, therefore, are
not ashamed to take up His Cross and follow Him. This apology ought to
suffice even those who oppose us, for if they felt as grateful as we
do, they would also obey. They ought, at any rate, to say, "We cannot
blame these men for doing as Jesus bids them because He has done so
much for them."
Surely the poor man who had been paralyzed 38 years could not be blamed
for obeying the command of One who, in a moment, restored him to health
and strength! If he became His servant for life, who would censure him?
Who would say that he too tamely submitted? Should not such a
Benefactor exert a boundless influence over him? What could be more
natural and proper?
Now, you unconverted people must excuse us, if we, in obedience to our
Lord Jesus, do many things which, to you, seem very peculiar, for
though we would not needlessly offend, we cannot please you at the risk
of displeasing our Lord. We do not owe so much to you as we owe to Him!
We do not owe so much to the whole world as we owe to the Lord Jesus!
In fact, truth to tell, we do not feel that we owe anything to the
world! The time past suffices us to have worked the will of the
Gentiles, for when we are asked the question, "What fruit had you,
then, in those things whereof you are now ashamed?" We have to confess
that we had no fruit, except the sour grapes which set our teeth on
edge. Like the shipmen who put out to sea against Paul's advice, our
only gain has been loss and damage!
In serving the world, we found the labor wearisome and the wages death.
But as for our Lord Jesus, we owe Him everything and so you must excuse
us if we try to follow Him in everything. It seems to us that this is
an excuse which you ought to accept from us as covering the whole
ground–but if you refuse it we are not at all dismayed, for it quite
suffices us, yes, more than suffices us–it makes us glory in what we
do! Does Jesus command? Then it is ours to obey! Objectors may say,
concerning one of His ordinances, it is unsuitable to the climate, it
is indecent, it is needless, it is I do not know what–all this is no
concern of ours–if Jesus bade us do it, His command stands for us in
the place of reasoning! He who made us whole, gives us sufficient
excuse for obedience in that very fact.
"Oh, but it is contrary to what the fathers teach and to what the
Church teaches." We care not the snap of our finger for all the fathers
and all the churches under Heaven if they go contrary to what our Lord
teaches–for they did not make us whole and we are not under obligation
to them as we are to Him! The authority of Jesus is supreme because it
is from His lips that we received the Word which healed the sickness of
our sin. This satisfies our conscience, now, and it will do so amid the
solemnities of death! How can we make a mistake if we follow the Words
of Jesus in all things? My Brethren, we can plead His precepts as our
guarantee at the Last Great Day before the Judge of the quick and the
dead! What better plea can we have than this, "You did make us whole
and You did bid us do this"?
Such a justification of our conduct will make our death pillow soft and
our resurrection bright with joy! Instead of admitting that this is not
an ample justification, let us go further, still, in the strength of
it! If the world has accounted us
vile for obeying our Lord, let us be still viler! And, inasmuch as He
that made us whole said, "Go you into all the world and preach the
Gospel to every creature," let us endeavor to spread abroad everywhere
the savor of His name, consecrating ourselves body, soul and spirit to
the extension of His Kingdom! He who made us whole will yet make the
world whole by His own wondrous power! Have we not abundantly shown
that our Lord's command is a solid justification of our conduct?
II. And now, secondly, the cure brought forth AN OBLIGATION–"He that
made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up your bed, and walk." The
argument takes this form–first, if He made me whole, He is Divine, or
He could not do this miracle. Or, to say the least, He must be divinely
authorized–and if He is Divine, or divinely authorized, I am bound to
obey the orders which He issues. Is not that a plain argument which
even the poor, simple mind of the paralytic man was able to grasp and
wield?
Let us try and feel the force of that argument ourselves. Jesus who has
saved us is our God–shall we not obey Him? Since He is clothed with
Divine power and majesty, shall we not scrupulously endeavor to know
His will and zealously endeavor to carry it out in every point as His
Spirit shall enable us? In addition to the Divine Character which the
miracle proved and displayed, there was the goodness which shone in the
deed of power and touched the poor man's heart. His argument was–"I
must do what my great Deliverer bids me. How can you think otherwise?
Did He not make me whole? Would you have me, whom He has thus
graciously restored, refuse to fulfill His desire? Must I not take up
my bed the moment He gives me strength to do it?
"How can I do otherwise? Is this to be the recompense I pay to my good
Physician–to refuse to do what He asks of me? Do you not see that I am
under an obligation which it would be shameful to deny? He restored
these limbs and I am bound to do with them what He orders me do with
them. He says, 'walk,' and since these once withered feet have been
restored, shall I not walk? He bids me roll up my bed and since I could
not have used my hands till just now, His Word gave them life–shall I
not use them to roll up my bed at His bidding? These poor shoulders of
mine were bent with weakness, but He has made me stand upright! And
since He now bids me carry my bed, shall I not throw the rug on my
shoulders and bear the easy load which He lays upon me?"
There was no answering such reasoning. Whatever might have been the
claim of Jesus upon others, He clearly had an indisputable right to the
loyal obedience of one whom He had made perfectly whole! Follow me
briefly in this, Brothers and Sisters. If you have been saved by the
Grace of God, your salvation has put you under obligation to do what
Jesus bids you. Are you redeemed? Then you are not your own–you are
bought with a price! Have you been, in consequence of what the Lord has
done for you, rescued from Satanic slavery and adopted into the Divine
family? Then it clearly follows that because you are sons and
daughters, you should be obedient to the Law of the household–for is
not this a first element of sonship–that you should reverence the
great Father of the family?
The Lord has been pleased to put away your sin. You are forgiven–but
does not pardon demand amendment? Shall we go back to the old sins from
which we have been cleansed? Shall we live in the iniquities from which
we have been washed by the blood of our Lord Jesus? That were horrible
to think of! It would be nothing less than devilish for a man to say,
"I have been forgiven and, therefore, I will sin again." There is no
remission where there is no repentance! The guilt of sin remains on
that man in whom the love of sin still remains. Let us practically feel
the force of this and follow after purity and righteousness!
Brothers and Sisters upon whom Christ has worked His great work, you
have experienced the love of God and, therefore, if God has so loved
you, you are bound to love Him in return! If God has so loved you, you
must also love your brother. Do not love of God and love of man spring
up as a sure consequence of the love of God shed abroad in the heart?
Does not everyone see the necessity which calls for the one love to
follow the other? And love is the mother of obedience–thus everything
connected with our Lord lays us under obligation to obey Him! There is
not a single blessing of the Covenant but what necessarily entails its
corresponding duty–and here I scarcely like to say duty–for these
blessings of the Covenant make duty to be our privilege and holiness to
be our delight!
Therefore, redeemed from sin, we would live no longer in sin!
Therefore, made heirs of Heaven, we endeavor to lead the heavenly life
so that even while we are below, our conversation may be in Heaven from
where we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, He that
made you whole has commanded this and that to be done by you! I counsel
you to keep the King's Commandments. As Mary said to the waiters at the
wedding at Cana, so I say to you–"Whatever He
says unto you, do it." Does He bid you pray, then pray without ceasing!
Does He bid you watch as well as pray? Then guard every act, thought
and word!
Does He bid you love your Brethren? Then love them with a pure heart!
Does He bid you serve them and humble yourself for His sake? Then do so
and become the servant of all! Has He said, "Be you holy, for I am
holy"? Then aim at this by His Holy Spirit! Has He said, "Be you
perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect"? Then
strive after perfection, for He that made you whole has a right to
direct your ways and it will be both your safety and your happiness to
submit yourselves to His commands!
III. Enough, however, upon that. We now call your attention, in the
third place, to the text under the sense of CONSTRAINT–"He that made
me whole, the same said unto me, Take up your bed and walk." He made
him whole by saying, "Rise, take up your bed." The carrying of the bed
was part and parcel of the cure. The first part of the healing word was
"rise," but the second was, "take up your bed." Now, it was not an
ordinary word which Jesus spoke to that man–a mere word of advice,
warning, or command–it was a word full of power like that which
created light out of darkness. When the Lord said to the poor man,
"Rise," he rose.
A thrill went through him–those stagnant blood vessels felt the
life-blood stir and flow–those dormant nerves were awakened to
sensations of health! Those withered sinews and muscles braced
themselves for energetic action, for Omnipotence had visited the
impotent man and restored him. Oh it must have been a wondrous joy to
the long enervated, nerveless, powerless frame, to be capable of
healthy motion–to be equal to bearing a happy burden! The joyful man
rolled up his bed, threw it on his back and marched abroad with the
best of them! The bed-carrying was part of the cure and proof of the
cure.
The paralytic had not been called upon to deliberate as to whether he
should rise or not, but Jesus said, "Rise," and he stood upright! The
same word said, "Take up your bed." The bed was up at once and,
according, to the last word, "walk," the man walked with delight! It
was all done by the power of the one thrilling sentence which tarried
not to be questioned, but accomplished the end for which the Lord had
sent it. Not unwillingly did the restored man carry his bed, yet he did
it of constraint, for the same power which made him whole made him
obedient. Before the Divine energy had touched him, he seemed scarcely
to have any will at all. The Lord had to hunt to find a will in him,
saying, "Do you want to be made whole?"
But now he cheerfully wills obedience to his Benefactor and in the
force of the command, he carried out the Lord's behest. I say that his
taking up his bed and walking was done by Christ's enabling and done by
Christ's constraining– and I pray that you may know by experience what
this means. What I want you to feel is this–"I cannot help obeying
Christ, for by His Holy Spirit He has spoken me into a life which will
never die and never be vanquished! He has spoken a Word in me which has
a continuous force over me and thrills me through and through
constantly. I can no more help seeking to obey Christ than this man
could help carrying his bed when the Lord, by a Word of power, had bid
him do
so."
Brothers and Sisters, look at this and be instructed and warned. Do you
feel reluctant, this morning, to enter upon your Lord's service because
of conscious weakness? Has the devil tempted you to draw back from
obedience because of your unfitness? Do you hesitate? Do you tremble?
Surely you need to draw near to the Lord, again, and hear His voice
anew! Take your Bibles and let Him speak to you, again, out of the Word
and may the same thrill which awoke you out of your death-sleep wake
you out of your present lethargy! There is need that the Living Word of
God should come home to your inmost soul with that same miraculous
power which dwelt in it at first. "Lord, quicken me," is David's
prayer, but it suits me every day and I think most of God's people
would do well to use it daily.
"Lord, speak life unto me now as You did at first. Speak power, speak
spiritual force into me." "The love of Christ constrains us," says the
Apostle. This constraint is what we need to feel more and more. We need
Divine Life perpetually to bear us forward to acts of obedience! We do
not need to destroy willinghood, but we would have it quickened into
entire subservience to the will of the Lord! Like Noah's ark on dry
land, the will keeps its place by its own dead weight– O for a flood
of Grace to move, to lift, to bear it up–to carry it away by a mighty
current! We would be borne before the love of Christ as a tiny piece of
wood is drifted by the Gulf stream, or as one of the specks which dance
in the sunbeam would be carried by a rushing wind.
As the impulse which began with Jesus found the poor man passive
because utterly unable to be otherwise and then impelled him on to
active movements as with a rush of power, so may it always be with us
throughout life. May we forever yield to the Divine impulse! To be
passive in the Lord's hands is a good desire, but to be what I would
call actively passive, to be cheerfully submissive, willing to give up
our will–this is a higher spiritual mood! We must live and yet not we,
but Christ in us! We must act and yet we must say, He that made me
whole bade me do this holy deed and I do it because His power moves me
to do it! If I have done well, I lay the honor at His feet. If I hope
to do well in the future, it is because I hope for strength from Him to
do well, believing that He will work in me by that same power which
converted me at the first! Beloved, endeavor to abide under this
influence. May the Holy Spirit bring you there!
My last word is a practical lesson. The Church of God on earth at this
present time anxiously desires to spread her influence over the world.
For Christ's sake we wish to have the Truths of God we preach
acknowledged and the precepts which we deliver obeyed. But mark, no
Church will ever have power over the masses of this or any other land
except in proportion as she does them good. The day has long since
passed in which any Church may hope to prevail on the plea of history.
"Look at what we were," is a vain appeal–men only care for what we
are.
The sect which glorifies itself with the faded laurels of past
centuries and is content to be inactive today is very near to its
inglorious end. In the race of usefulness, men nowadays care less about
the pedigree of the horse and more about the rate at which it can run.
The history of a congregation or a sect is of small account compared
with the practical good which it is doing. Now, if any Church under
Heaven can show that it is making men honest, temperate, pure, moral,
holy–that it is seeking out the ignorant and instructing them, that it
is seeking out the fallen and reclaiming them, that, in fact, it is
turning moral wastes into gardens and taking the weeds and briars of
the wilderness and transforming them into precious fruit-bearing
trees–then the world will be ready to hear its claims and consider
them.
If a Church cannot prove its usefulness, the source of its moral
strength will have gone and, indeed, something worse than this will
have happened, for its spiritual strength will have gone, too! A barren
church is manifestly without the fruitful Spirit of God. Brothers and
Sisters, you may, if you will, dignify your minister by the name of
bishop. You may give to your deacons and elders grand official titles.
You may call your place of worship a cathedral. You may worship, if you
will, with all the grandeur of pompous ceremonies and the adornments of
music and incense and the like–but you shall have only the semblance
of power over human minds unless you have something more than these!
If you have a Church, no matter by what name it is called, that is
devout, that is holy, that is living unto God, that does good in its
neighborhood, that, by the lives of its members, spreads holiness and
righteousness–in a word, if you have a Church that is really making
the world whole in the name of Jesus–you shall, in the long run, find
that even the most carnal and thoughtless will say, "The Church which
is doing this good is worthy of respect. Therefore let us hear what it
has to say." Living usefulness will not screen us from persecution, but
it will save us from contempt! A holy Church goes with authority to the
world in the name of Jesus Christ, its Lord, and this force, the Holy
Spirit uses to bring human hearts into subjection to the Truth of God!
Oh, that the Church of God would believe in Jesus' power to heal sick
souls! Remember that this man who was sick for 38 years, had been ill
longer than Christ had lived on earth! He had been afflicted seven
years before Christ was born! And even so this poor world has been long
afflicted. Years before the Pentecost, or the birth of the present
visible Church, the poor sinful world lay at the pool and could not
move. We must not be hopeless about it, for the Lord will yet cast sin
out of it. Let us go, in Jesus Christ's name, and proclaim the
everlasting Gospel and say, "Rise, take up your bed and walk," and it
shall be done and God shall be glorified and we shall be blessed!
PORTION OFSCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–John 5:1-23. HYMNS FROM "OUR
OWN HYMN BOOK"–909, 331, 787.
SPURGEON'S TESTIMONIAL–The Sermons and Speeches delivered in
commemoration of the 25th year of his Pastorate. Passmore and
Alabaster. At our express desire the publishers have issued this
handsome volume for a shilling. It is a choice memorial of a rare event
and every one of our friends should preserve a copy. It will soon be
out of print and unobtainable. [And so it is!–EOD]
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Constant, Instant, Expectant
A Sermon